Risk and Reward
by seimaisin
Summary: Letting Zevran stay at the palace is a risk for Queen Anora. Fortunately for her, it's a risk that pays off.


Anora hadn't expected the Antivan assassin, of all people, to be the one who remained after the celebrations and ceremonies were done. But, he simply neglected to move out of the room he'd been provided at the palace, and none of the servants had the nerve to tell him to go. A few days later, Erlina had come to the queen, wringing her hands. "Should we call the guards to remove him?"

After a moment's thought, Anora waved a hand. "No. He did Ferelden a great service. If he wishes a place to stay, he may stay." She wasn't nearly as sure as she sounded, but repairing her family's public image seemed more important than any lingering doubts. Snubbing one of the Hero of Ferelden's friends would be a poor move, after all her father had done.

Still, she ordered a guard to her bedroom door at night. Just in case.

"I appreciate your hospitality, Your Majesty."

Anora swallowed an undignified shriek at the unexpected voice. When she turned from her desk, she saw Zevran standing next to the bookshelves, a ghost of a smirk playing across his face. "How did you get in here?" she asked. "This is my private study. There are guards at the stairs."

"I wouldn't have been very good at my previous job had I not been able to slip past two guards."

"Were you, then?"

"Was I what?"

"Good at your previous job? Because I was under the impression you'd failed, rather spectacularly."

The smirk became a full-grown grin. "I did at that. I suspect you're as grateful for that as I am these days."

"Possibly." She leaned against her desk, crossed her arms over her chest. "Why are you here?"

"Here at the palace? Or here in your study?"

"Both. But the study is the more immediate question."

"To thank you."

"Which you've done."

"If I were to also say I wanted to spend time in the company of a beautiful woman, would it be an offense worthy of calling those two pleasant men with the swords in here for me?"

"Perhaps. If I thought either of them would survive the encounter."

Zevran laughed at that; Anora was surprised at how open and genuine it sounded. "Ah, you give me too much credit. Or perhaps not enough. I would not be so careless as to kill them. Just wound them enough to aid my escape."

Anora let out a sound that she refused to acknowledge as a soft laugh. "Well, thank the Maker for that," she said. "My guards are rather few these days, what with the darkspawn."

"So I've noticed. You really should think about replenishing them. It would help keep the assassins out."

"Are you encouraging me to kick you out of the palace?"

"Me? Oh no, I have given up my prior trade, remember? But the man languishing out in the stables, he would probably have been easier to spot with more guards on the grounds."

Anora stilled. "Excuse me?"

Zevran simply bowed. "Consider it repayment for my room and board." And with that, he walked out the door, leaving Anora to stare after him.

The guards found the man tied up in an empty stall in the stables. A bit of persuasion found that he'd been hired by a small group of nobles from the Bannorn, ones who considered her complicit in her father's crimes. Per his own words, he'd made it to the ground underneath her bedroom window before he was knocked unconscious by an unknown assailant.

Anora ordered the guards surrounding her living quarters doubled, and issued a proclamation giving any healthy man or woman a recruitment bonus to join the guard.

This time, when Zevran showed up in her study, it was because she called him there. "Thank you," she said, from her seat behind the desk.

He simply smiled and bowed. "He was hired, I assume?"

She nodded. "Bann Noreth will pay for his crimes." She met his eyes. "It's really too bad I cannot spare the men to go arrest him right now."

Zevran raised an eyebrow. "It is, isn't it?"

"I have the money to pay the guards, but not enough bodies to do what I need them to do. A shame, because I would give quite the bonus to someone who could bring the Bann the justice he deserves."

"I'm sure you would. You seem to be a fine, generous queen." He smiled. "And lovely besides." When her frown turned into a crooked smile, he laughed loudly. Anora managed to stifle her own chuckle until he had left the room.

She wasn't surprised when Erlina came to her the next day. "Zevran has left. No one knows where he's gone."

"That's fine," Anora said. "It's not as if he was a permanent resident of the castle."

She was also unsurprised when, a week or so later, word came to the capital that Bann Noreth had met with a tragic accident. "Fell off his horse," the messenger told her, "and hit his head. His wife says he was dead on impact."

"A shame," Anora murmured, and directed her secretary to send condolences to the widow. She knew, all too well, that a wife often had no control over her husband's passions. And if the wife turned out to also be part of the plot … well, she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

Whoever the plot's mastermind was, she kept the increased guard. She wasn't stupid.

It was nearly a month before Zevran reappeared. In Anora's study, of course, without any sort of warning. She'd almost trained herself out of expecting to see him every time she turned around. "I was wondering when you'd come back for your reward," she said, standing up and walking to the front of her desk.

"My reward?" Suddenly, Zevran laughed. "No, I'm not that coy. I would accept payment for services rendered. Unnamed services, of course."

"Of course." Anora walked to the corner of the room and unlocked a cabinet. "I didn't think you'd want to deal with my secretary," she said, pulling out a small bag of coins.

"You thought correctly." Zevran reached for the bag when Anora held it out; his fingers caressed hers briefly before they closed around the coins. "Thank you."

Anora studied him for a long moment, until a decision was made. "Our transaction is over. Do you agree?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Yes. Why?"

She gave him a small smile before sitting back down behind her desk. "I still have a guard at my bedroom door every night, you know. There's no telling whether anyone else involved in the plot on my life will get the message you so neatly sent."

"A wise move." Zevran's eyes were guarded; Anora had gotten a step ahead of him, a fact which she appreciated.

"I trust that my guard is good enough at his job to stop any normal conspirator. After all, I don't suspect they have someone as good as you working for them."

"After meeting the unfortunately late Bann, I feel somewhat safe in saying yes, that is true."

Anora nodded. "You, I suspect, would be able to get around any guard I set."

Suddenly, Zevran laughed loudly. "I would, Your Majesty. You have hired some halfway decent men, though, I discovered. It could be a challenge, to get inside without being noticed."

"I'm sure you'd be up for it."

"Are you asking me to try?"

"If you were up for a challenge." Anora shrugged, smiling.

"And the challenge was related to our transaction …"

"Not a bit," she said firmly. "Because I am not a commodity to be traded. Nor are you."

Zevran looked at her for a long moment, his expression more thoughtful than she'd seen from him. "No," he said finally, voice quiet. "We are not." The smile reappeared then, a genuine version that seemed to light up the room. "Here's to a challenge, then."

"Indeed."

Anora turned back to the correspondence on her desk; he was gone when she looked up, as she expected he'd be. She smiled to herself. There were no rewards, she knew, unless one took a risk or two. And if Zevran was nothing else, he was certainly an attractive risk.

For the first time in a long time, Anora looked forward to the night ahead.


End file.
